AYERSVILLE – Despite finding themselves short handed and in an early battle the Ottawa Glandorf Titans clinched their 10th straight 20-win season and a sectional title with a 54-22 triumph over Spencerville Saturday afternoon.
OG freshman Karsyn Erford opened the game for the Titans on the first possession of the game by knocking down a triple but found her teams joy to be short lived as Bearcat senior Gabi Croft did the same for Spencerville to tie the contest at 3-3.
Baskets by Katie Kaufman, Chloee Glenn, and finally Erford again upped the advantage to 7-3 before the Bearcats last basket, a make by Clara Goecke with 4:54 showing on the clock cut the deficit to 7-5.
Spencerville nearly snagged their first lead of the afternoon on their next possession but a right wing triple was unsuccessful and led to the Titans finishing out the stanza on an 11-0 run to take an 18-5 lead they would not relinquish.
While OG was able to limit their own turnovers they were able to turn their opponents miscues into swipe and scores on the way to a 16-8 second period.
Missing starters Kaelyn Grothause and Emma Brinkman due to illness the Titans were forced to shuffle their rotations and starting lineup and forced to rely harder on their deep bench for minutes on the floor.
Gabi Croft connected on her second three point goal of the game with 6:00 remaining in the opening half to cut the OG lead to 19-8 and put a stop to a span of 6:54 without a basket for her own team. Junior sharpshooter Heidi Keller who finished with five triples and 15 points against the Titans in the first game of her career in 2020 hit a triple and a pair of free throws across a four minute span as the only other points for the designated visitors.
Fast break baskets from Erford and Haselman coupled with post markers from Kaitlyn Kimmet and Glenn kept the Titan offensive machine moving in the second quarter that came to an end with a triple just in front of the buzzer by Haselman and a 34-13 OG halftime lead.
Looking to their bench for extra pop the Titans turned to sophomore Carlie Brinkman in the third and watched as she produced a trio of layups for six of her seven points.
The Bearcats connected on 4 of 4 free throws but were held to just a single make from the field in the third, a shot from Croft, the last of her 10 points on the afternoon near the end of the period to send the game into the final eight minutes 47-19 OG.
Ottawa Glandorf closed out the fourth period of play with a 6-3 run that saw baskets from Alivia Grothause and Myka Aldrich close out the scoring while the lone Bearcat bucket, a triple from Heidi Keller ended a span of 4 minutes and 51 seconds without a make on the offensive end and provided the final score of 54-22.
Greg Ekis, the 9th year boss of the Bearcats remarked postgame “I thought early on we did a nice job executing our game plan. Credit to OG, they knocked down some big shots and did a great job hurting us on the offensive glass. I’m extremely proud of our three senior (Kirsten Wurst, Gabi Croft, and Sydney LeMar) in the way they have led us this year”.
Spencerville (12-12) was paced by Croft with 10 and Keller with eight while the Titans Karsyn Erford led all scorers with 12.
Next up for #5 ranked Ottawa Glandorf (20-3) is a Thursday night trip to Elida for a district semifinals showdown against Fairview, a team the Titans defeated earlier this season with a tipoff slated for 7:30pm and heard live on WZOQ Radio.
Scoring:
OG (54):
Karsyn Erford 12
Lily Haselman 5
Alivia Grothause 2
Myka Aldrich 4
Carlie Brinkman 7
Kaitlyn Kimmet 9
Katie Kaufman 8
Chloee Glenn 7
FT: 8/11
3PT: 2 (Erford, Haselman)
TO: 10
Spencerville (22):
Clara Goecke 2
Kirsten Wurst 2
Gabi Croft 10
Heidi Keller 8
FT: 6/6
3PT: 4 (Keller 2, Croft 2)
TO: 22